Heather Heyer identified as victim of Charlottesville car attack

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - AUGUST 13: Flowers surround a photo of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting against the white supremacist Unite the Right rally, August 13, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Charlottesville is calm the day after violence errupted around the Unite the Right rally, a gathering of white supremacists, that left Heyer dead and injured 19 others.

By
Zuri Davis, Rare.us and Kelcie Willis, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

NBC News reported that Heyer worked at a Ruckersville, Virginia, law firm. She was killed as she crossed the street with other counterprotesters.

“She was there with her friends and she was trying to simply cross the street as the movement was breaking up that day and she was plowed down by a young man who was intent on spreading hate and thought hate would fix the world, and hate does not fix the world,” Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, said.

Ohio resident James Alex Fields Jr., 20, was taken into custody by police shortly after videos showed a silver Dodge Challenger registered under his name speeding toward a crowd, hitting people and cars in front of it, and then backing out of the street.

He is being held on suspicion of second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop in an accident that resulted in death, according to CNN.

“I told him to be careful,” his mother, Samantha Bloom, told the Toledo Blade. “(And) if they’re going to rally to make sure he’s doing it peacefully.”

“I always encouraged her to be strong and strong-minded — even though that wasn’t always easy to raise -- but I was always proud of what she was doing,” Bro told NBC News. “She was a fun loving person and tenderhearted person, but at times she could be tough as nails too.”